The Buch stops here

The OUA playoffs operate at a weird pace—the men’s volleyball team start their OUA Final series tonight, while the men’s basketball team won’t play their quarter-final match until tomorrow. In light of this, I figured it would be appropriate to offer predictions for the second-round matchups that have already been set in men’s volleyball and women’s hockey, even though the first round isn’t wrapped up in other sports. By the way, this blog’s record so far is 3-1—the smear on my transcript thus far comes from the women’s basketball team’s loss to Carleton Saturday.

Men’s volleyball

Regular-season record: 14-6
Regular-season standing: Second in OUA
Quarter-finals: Bye
Semifinals: Beat 10-10 Ryerson Rams Saturday at home in four sets.
Finals: Face 20-0 McMaster Marauders in a best-of-three series: the first match is tonight at Bartlett Gym; the second clash is in Hamilton Thursday. If a third match is required, it will be Saturday in Hamilton.
History: Beat McMaster in three matches in last year’s OUA finals but lost both regular-season games to them this year.
Prediction: Gaels’ victory in three matches.

This is a tough one to call. McMaster has been amazingly dominant this year, and knocked off Queen’s twice. The games have been close, though—Queen’s lost in five sets in Hamilton before the winter break, and dropped a four-set regular season finale a few weeks ago where Gaels’ head coach Brenda Willis rested several key players, including OUA Rookie of the Year Joren Zeeman and Libero of the Year Stu Hamilton. McMaster certainly has the edge on paper, as no one has been able to stop them yet. Meanwhile, Queen’s only clinched a first-round playoff bye on the last weekend of the season with a straight-set sweep of Guelph. The Gaels barely crept into the final CIS Top 10 Coaches’ Poll in the 10th and final spot—McMaster moved up one notch to second overall.

This hasn’t been a year for undefeated teams, though, and hubris might come back to haunt the Marauders. Despite the Gaels’ sometimes inconsistent performances this year, they’ve shown that when they’re on, they can play with the best—the three-set sweep of Guelph with the crucial second seed on the line being the most recent example. The historical rivalry between the teams certainly sets Queen’s up as potential giant-killers—rarely has a two-time defending conference champion received so little respect in terms of polls and rankings, but my bet’s on the Gaels using that for the necessary motivation to go out there and pull off the win.

Something else that bolsters my belief in the Gaels is comparing how the teams have changed since last year. The Gaels lost a few important figures to graduation, most notably libero Steve Willis, but Hamilton—who held the role for much of the regular season last year due to Willis’ school commitments—has done a tremendous job of improving his own play to fill that gap; his Libero of the Year award shows that position won’t be a loss for Queen’s. Outside hitter Luke Lichty’s also absent from the roster, but in evidence on the bench and one of the team’s most fervent supporters—he was never able to completely recover from a shoulder injury in the off-season, and decided a little while ago to sit out for the remainder of the year. His play’s certainly missed, but his support and experience are still valuable. A similar story applies to Andrew Bridgeman, an important fifth-year player for last year’s Gaels who made the transition to helping out as an assistant coach this year.

The Gaels’ gains more than offset their losses. They brought in six extremely talented rookies this year. Will Bulmer’s missed most of the year with an arm injury, while Dan Rosenbaum sees limited playing time due to the continued excellence of setter Devon Miller and Bryan Fautley is also sparingly used. Zeeman, Niko Rukavina and Michael Amoroso have all made huge contributions to the team, and threaten the veterans for starting jobs on a regular basis: in fact, all three started the Gaels’ semifinal match against Ryerson.

By contrast, McMaster has only one rookie who has made a considerable contribution this year: Josh Lichty, Luke’s younger brother. As I noticed at the Gaels-Marauders clash two weekends ago, he’s certainly a talented player: in fact, Willis said she tried heavily to recruit him, along with most of the other coaches in the country, due to his national junior team experience. He made the OUA All-Rookie Team, but he’s no match for the combination of Zeeman, Rukavina and Amoroso: Zeeman’s Rookie of the Year Award shows the OUA coaches consider him to be the top player of this year’s first-year class.

The Gaels’ other advantage is their bench strength. They have a tremendous variety of players who can bring different approaches to the table. Guys like Zeeman and Jeff De Meza are fantastic power hitters but somewhat weaker on defence, while others like Dan McCrae and Rukavina go more for placement with their hitting and pull off a lot of digs. The veteran leadership from the likes of McCrae, Nick Gralewicz and Chris Vandyk is invaluable, but so is the rookies’ pure energy. They also have a solid serve-and-defend specialist in Pete Galbraith and versatile players like Sam Pedlow who can contribute in a variety of roles. The many different looks, options and offensive strategies the Gaels bring to the table should be enough to push them over the top.

A lot is on the line for these teams: it’s not just the Ontario championship that’s at stake, but also a berth in the national finals next month in Quebec. Laval University claims one of the eight spots as host, and the Quebec and Atlantic champions also receive berths. Due to Western Canadian teams finishing 1-2-3 at last year’s championships, Canada West has four of the remaining spots, leaving just one for the Ontario champions. It’s all up for grabs here: winning this series gives you a shot at national glory; a loss ends your season. I think the Gaels have what it takes to perform when the chips are down—we’ll have to see if events vindicate me.

Women’s hockey

Regular-season record: 12-9-6-0
Regular-season standing: Fourth in OUA East
Quarter-final opponent: Beat 11-11-4-1 York Lions 2-0 at home Saturday.
Semifinal opponent: Face 23-2-2 Laurier Golden Hawks in a best-of-three series: Game 1 is at home Friday at 7:30 p.m., while the second and third games will be on the road.
Prediction: Defeat in three games.

This is an unfortunate matchup for the women’s team: Laurier is undisputedly one of the toughest teams in the country (ranked third in the last CIS Top 10 Coaches Poll), while Queen’s didn’t even crack those rankings all season. Rankings aren’t always everything, and there’s certainly the chance of an upset—magnified because one of the Hawks’ only two losses this year was to the Gaels. I think it’s going to be a close series, but in the end Laurier will be able to pull off the win.

If a Queen’s victory does occur, it will likely be due to the stellar play of goalie Melissa John. John stood on her head Jan. 25 against the Golden Hawks, when she stopped all 41 shots she faced to earn her first shutout of the year, which came with the nice bonus of the OUA and CIS female athlete of the week awards. John’s certainly capable of stealing a game or two, and if the Gaels win the series, she’ll likely be the reason why.

For long-term success, though, which is essential in a three-game series, the Gaels will have to get more shots on the net. They only recorded 14 in that game against Laurier, and only scored one goal proper (the other one was an empty-net goal): that kind of offence leaves no margin for error by your superstar goalie, as Vancouver Canucks’ fans know well. They certainly have plenty of offensively talented players, led by Liz Kench and captain Cassie Sparks—they’ll need more from them if they want to succeed against the Hawks. Queen’s recorded 30 shots against York, which was certainly a step in the right direction: if they continue on that path, they’ll hopefully prove me wrong and knock off the Golden Hawks.

But as I’ve mentioned before, the unfortunate thing with Cinderella stories is they usually don’t turn out to be true. The clock frequently strikes midnight on the underdogs, which is sad to see but a usual fact of life, as the favourites are often just too powerful. Laurier’s a dominant team at both ends of the ice: they’re led offensively by forward Lauren Barch, whose 32 points on the season are eighth-best in Canada and second-best in Ontario. Defensively, they have Liz Knox keeping the pucks out: her astounding 0.98 goals-against average is the best in Ontario, and the second-best in CIS competition behind only McGill’s Charline Labonte. She also boasts a sparkling .944 save percentage and seven shutouts. John is only five slots back on the CIS goals-against average list, but her 1.91 mark is almost double that recorded by Knox. John has been hot lately though, as all three of her shutouts have come since the Gaels’ Jan. 25 win over Laurier. Many underdogs have succeeded in hockey, especially with a goalie on a hot streak: here’s hoping the Gaels can be one of them.

Brief mentions:

Men’s hockey is technically playing a second-round series against the McGill Redmen starting Wednesday: but due to their first-round bye, I lumped them in with the teams in my previous post. It’s unfortunate the Redmen knocked off Carleton, as I thought Queen’s would have been able to handle either the University of Toronto or the University of Ottawa. McGill’s a premier hockey school, though, and head coach Brett Gibson told me earlier this year (after a 6-2 drubbing at the hands of the Redmen in November) that McGill’s program is what the Gaels are trying to emulate.

“It was just a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” he said. “When you take nine of 10 points, you start thinking you’re better than you really are. … McGill came in and proved why they’re one of the best programs in the country, and they’re the benchmark where we really need to be.”

Quotes like that certainly don’t inspire dreams of an upset, and that performance was amazing by the standards of the 10-1 thumping the Gaels took in Montreal in January. To their credit, that loss seemed to inspire the team somewhat, and they played better down the stretch. But they couldn’t clinch the second seed on their own after a loss to lowly Ryerson and wound up only claiming the bye thanks to an amazing choke job by the University of Toronto. They’ve certainly got some great players: Ryan Gibb is one of the best goalies in the CIS, and if anyone can steal a series, he can. Captain Jeff Ovens reminds me of a young Trevor Linden, as his heart and intensity have also been matched by his offensive contributions. The team also gets solid performances from the likes of Brady Olsen and Jon Lawrance. In the end, though, I think they’re good enough to keep it close against McGill, and perhaps even good enough to force a third game, but I don’t think they’ll be able to pull it off.

Prediction: McGill in 3

Also, quick congratulations to the fencing, curling and wrestling teams. Joanne Ko took home a gold medal in épée for the women’s fencing team, which also won a bronze in the team épée event. Coach Hugh Munby was recognized for his work with the team with the OUA women’s coach of the year award as well. On the men’s side, Greg Nonato won a bronze in sabre and led the sabre team to another bronze.

In curling, the women’s team took home an impressive silver medal after a close 8-5 loss to Laurier in the final. It was a great performance by them to get that far. The men’s team lost to Western in the semi-finals.

In wrestling, Eric Bertrand took home a bronze for the Gaels at the OUA championships last Sunday, booking himself a ticket to Calgary for the CIS championships in the process. The men’s team finished seventh overall. Unfortunately Shannon Mullins, who’s one of the country’s best wrestlers, wasn’t able to compete due to injury: she probably would have been able to also earn a national slot.

Last brief mention: the track-and-field team competes in the OUA finals in Windsor this weekend. Track’s a tough sport for detailed predictions, but they should do reasonably well: they’ve been bringing home some great medal hauls this year, particularly in the distance running events where they have stars like Braden Novakowski, Matt Hulse and Leslie Sexton.

The start of Reading Week is also the most important time for the Gaels’ winter sporting teams as they gear up for the postseason. Here are my predictions on how the basketball, volleyball and hockey teams will do in the first round.

Men’s basketball

Record: 14-8
Standing: Fourth in OUA East
First-round opponent: Host either 7-14 Ryerson Rams or 6-15 York Lions Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Prediction: First-round victory

The basketball team will face a different set of challenges depending on if they play York or Ryerson. Ryerson closes the season this weekend with a tough game against the 16-5 University of Toronto Varsity Blues, while York has an easier match, hosting the 4-17 Laurentian Voyageurs (by the way, if anyone has a good reason to place a team from Sudbury in the OUA East, please let me know!). The 16-5 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees also play the 21-0 Carleton Ravens on the weekend, so the second seed is still to be determined between them and Toronto. Toronto and York hold the tie-breaker advantage in case of equal records.

Queen’s swept both York and Ryerson during the regular season, beating the Lions 78-56 and 74-67 while besting the Rams 79-74 and 77-69. Both teams pose considerable danger to the Gaels. Ryerson’s main threat is the Bakovic brothers— Boris, who leads the OUA with 23.81 points per game and 500 points overall and is second in rebounds per game with 8.52, and Igor, who leads the league with 10 rebounds per game—a formidable combination. York, on the other hand, relies on a single star, point guard Tut Ruach, who’s fourth in the league with 18.81 points per game. Both teams’ key players have the ability to dominate games—in the Feb. 9 York-Ryerson match, the Bakovics combined for 45 points and 25 rebounds en route to a 89-81 Rams victory, while Ruach chipped in 30-plus points for the Lions in the second straight game in a row (he wound up with 31 on the night).

The previous evening, Ruach had one of the most outstanding second half performances I’ve ever heard of, scoring 31 of his 32 points after the halftime break to lead the Lions to a shocking upset of the highly ranked Varsity Blues. Respected basketball authority Mark Wacyk of cishoops.ca described Ruach’s play in the second half as “absolutely unstoppable … probably the most electrifying performance in one half by one player all season long.” Regardless which team the Gaels face, it’s clear that shutting down their stars will be the key to victory: defensive specialists like Tim Boyle and Nick DiDonato will have to be at the top of their game.

One thing that’s a little concerning is head coach Rob Smart’s comments to me on the playoff matchup after Wednesday’s 75-53 trouncing of the Royal Military College Paladins. Smart said he isn’t even targeting their first-round opposition, and is instead looking ahead to the looming possibility of a second-round date with Carleton (which could only be avoided if the sixth-seeded team upsets the third-seed of either Toronto or the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in the first round). “If we can beat Carleton in the second round, if we’re good enough to beat Carleton, we’re probably good enough to win the first round,” he said. While it was refreshing to hear something other than the standard “We have to take it one game at a time,” cliché, both York and Ryerson have shown that they have what it takes to play with the big teams, especially with York’s recent upset of Toronto.
That upset also shows it’s not out of the question that the sixth-seeded team could take down whichever of Toronto or Ottawa winds up in the third slot, leaving the Gaels to play the second-seeded team in the second round instead of Carleton. I’m not advocating that the Gaels ignore the possibility of a Carleton matchup, as it remains a pretty likely scenario: it just seems dangerously overconfident to underestimate either the Rams or the Lions, both of which have the players to potentially pull off an upset. Nevertheless, in the end I think Queen’s depth will be enough to see them through the first round. They have a star forward in Mitch Leger who can go almost point-for-point with Ruach or Bakovic, but their real advantage is their other scoring threats like the Mitchell brothers and Jon Ogden. If Queen’s defensive specialists can limit the damage caused by the stars of York or Ryerson, they should be able to take this one.

Women’s basketball:

Record: 9-13
Standing: Fourth in OUA East
First-round opponent: Host 8-14 Carleton Ravens Saturday at 2 p.m. in Bartlett Gym.
Prediction: First-round victory

It has been a bit of an off-year for the women’s basketball team, and certainly a reversal from last year’s 13-9 regular-season record. Last season, they earned a first-round bye, beat Laurentian in the semifinals and then fell to York in the eastern final. Their performance certainly hasn’t been helped by the absence of Jess Selinger—one of last year’s standouts—due to injury, but this isn’t a particularly young team. Most of last year’s players, with the notable exception of Claire Meadows, have returned, and they run a veteran-heavy lineup most of the time.

In my mind, the Gaels have played somewhat inconsistently for much of the year—they beat 15-7 Laurentian but lost to 3-19 Ottawa—which has led to their current place in the standings. They split their games against the Ravens this year, pulling off an amazing fourth-quarter comeback to win 69-64 at home, but falling 61-50 on the road last weekend. If this team plays the way they’re capable of, they’re more than talented enough to beat the Ravens, and I think they’ll take their game to a new level when the chips are down. There’s always a chance the Hyde version of the Gaels will show up and suffer a first-round defeat, but I’m predicting they have a Jekyll moment and pull off the win.

Men’s hockey:

Record: 13-12-3
Standing: First in OUA Mid-East Division
First-round opponent: Host 18-9-1 McGill Redmen, 14-12-2 University of Ottawa Gee-Gees or 13-13-2 University of Toronto Varsity Blues in a best-of-three series starting Wednesday, Feb. 20.
Prediction: First-round loss if they face McGill, first-round win over Ottawa or Toronto

This one’s still very much up in the air. Thanks to Toronto’s abysmal choke-job down the stretch, the Gaels won the division and earned a first-round bye, which could be very important: in my mind, it’s probably an advantage to be fresh against a team that’s just come out of a grueling 3-game first-round series. As the NHL has shown, though, long layoffs aren’t always helpful. Queen’s won’t have played for two weeks by the time their playoffs get going, which could come back to haunt them.

The matchup will probably play the key part in this one. McGill had their way with the Gaels this year, beating them 6-2 in Kingston before demolishing them 10-1 in Montreal. You never know what will happen, but McGill has played far better than Queen’s this year in a tougher division, as their record shows. In fact, if it wasn’t for each division winner getting one of the top two slots, the Redmen would have a higher seeding than the Gaels. It’s possible Queen’s can turn it up in the playoffs against their ancient rivals, but I don’t see it as terribly likely.

I foresee less problems with Toronto or Ottawa, though. The Gaels were 0 for 2 against the Blues this year, but Toronto had a tough time down the stretch, losing four out of their last five (two in overtime). The division title was theirs for the taking, and they threw it away: that could come back to bite them after a grueling first-round series with Ottawa. Queen’s split their series with the Gee-Gees this year, winning 2-0 in Ottawa but losing 4-3 in a shootout at the Memorial Centre. Either team will give the Gaels a tight series, but I think if Queen’s gets solid goaltending from Ryan Gibb and a bit of offence from the likes of Brady Olsen, Jeff Ovens, Jon Asselstine and Jon Lawrance, they should be able to beat either opponent.

A quick word on how the seeding breaks down: McGill (seeded third in the OUA East) is in a three-game series with sixth-seeded Carleton, and they won their opener 5-1. They could clinch the series with a win tonight, which would lock them in to a second-round date with Queen’s. The highest remaining seed from the first round faces the Gaels, while the other victor takes on the 22-5-1 Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières Patriotes. If Carleton rebounds to beat McGill, they face the Patriotes and the winner of the Toronto-Ottawa matchup (fourth-seeded Ottawa won the opener 3-2 in overtime) takes on Queen’s.

Women’s hockey

Record: 12-9-6-0
Standing: Fourth in OUA East
First-round opponent: Host 11-11-4-1 York Lions Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Memorial Centre.
Prediction: First-round victory

Women’s hockey is another sport where Queen’s has slipped this year, if the regular season is any indication—they don’t look like an OUA silver medalist at the moment. Part of that is likely due to the transition to new head coach Rob Lalonde, which is always difficult. The Gaels have been hot lately, winning nine of their last 10 games, and have two goalies playing at the top of their game—Katie Boyd, named the OUA’s female athlete of the week for January 3-6, and Melissa John, who earned the same honour and also received the nod as the CIS female athlete of the week for Jan. 21-27. It looks like the Gaels are starting to click at the right time, so they should be able to take this one, especially given that they’re 3-0 against the Lions this year. Time and time again, though, underdogs have shown the veracity of a slightly modified quote from English writer Leslie Poles Hartley: “The playoffs are a foreign country: they do things differently there.”

Men’s volleyball

Record: 14-6
Standing: Second in OUA
First-round opponent: Host 10-10 Ryerson Rams Saturday at 7 p.m. in Bartlett Gym.
Prediction: First-round victory

Men’s volleyball is where I think the Gaels have the most potential for playoff success. They’re Queen’s only defending OUA champions, after all, and they’ve had a strong year—not as amazing as the 20-0 season the McMaster Marauders put up, but still impressive. They showed their true talent last Friday with a crucial straight-set victory over the Guelph Gryphons, where they had to win in less than five sets to take the tie-breaker, clinch second place and gain the first-round bye. That bye turned out to be somewhat fortunate, as sixth-seeded Ryerson knocked the third-seeded Gryphons out in the first round in a five-set thriller.

Queen’s has had some trouble with Ryerson in the past, notably in the five-set battle I attended in Toronto. But two of the Rams’ big advantages—the low roof that made passing difficult for the Gaels, and the dangerous serving of Oleh Kovalchuk, second in service aces in the OUA to only Queen’s setter Devon Miller—will be negated this time around. Queen’s will be hosting the Rams in the spacious confines of Bartlett Gym, which should greatly help their serve-receive game—as an aside, those same surroundings make Miller’s OUA-leading 38 service aces even more impressive, as he doesn’t usually have a low roof to increase the opponents’ passing difficulties. The difference the surroundings make is evident in the two games the teams played this year: Queen’s knocked off the Rams in straight sets at home, but struggled to a 27-25, 25-23, 23-25, 23-25, 15-11 win on Ryerson’s turf.

Also, Gaels’ head coach Brenda Willis told me Kovalchuk didn’t play very much against Guelph due to injury. The stats show he took part in all five games, but he only recorded two kills, four digs and a service ace, which suggests his action was quite limited. Taking his service threat away would certainly help. The Gaels will need to shut down Ryerson’s star outside hitter Greg McDonald, who racked up 20 kills against the Gryphons, and middle hitter Nicholas Beaver, who added 11 kills. Queen’s has talent of their own in spades, though. Stu Hamilton was named the OUA’s top libero yesterday, while outside hitter Joren Zeeman received the Rookie of the Year award. Miller and outside hitter Jeff DeMeza were also both named to the OUA First All-Star Team. The Gaels’ strong passing and setting, combined with their wide variety of attack options, should be enough to see them through setting the stage for an epic OUA final rematch against McMaster.

Women’s volleyball

Record: 7-12
Standing: Fourth in OUA East
Opponent: Away against 17-2 University of Toronto Varsity Blues tonight.
Prediction: First-round loss.

It has been a transition year for this team. To go with the addition of new head coach Joely Christian, the team’s focus shifted to a youth movement, with second-year outside hitter Louise Hamill and rookies Colleen Ogilvie, Elyssa Heller and Lorna Button all starting regularly. This has paid off at times, as in their upset of the 12-7 York Lions. When this team’s on their game, they can compete with anyone. Youth and inconsistency sometimes walk hand in hand, however, and that has also been the case at times this year when the Gaels have dropped matches to teams like 2-17 Windsor. This team’s on the right track, as shown by their sweep of the 4-15 Lakehead Thunderwolvesin Thunder Bay last weekend to clinch the final playoff spot (as another aside, having a Thunder Bay team in the OUA East is even more ridiculous than including a team from Sudbury) but it’s highly unlikely they’ll be able to beat the top-ranked Varsity Blues, who are first in the OUA and ranked ninth in the country. Upsets do happen, though, and it would be a great story to have Christian knock off her alma mater’s team, as she used to be an assistant coach at Toronto.

Earlier this week, Randy Starkman of the Toronto Star did a great two-part feature on concussions in hockey. He conducted in-depth interviews with experts, doctors, current and former National Hockey League players and league personnel, and even spoke with some minor hockey players whose lives have been affected by concussions. The majority of those he talked to recognized the severity and the danger posed by these injuries and had some great perspectives on it. The voice of one man stood out, though, both for his comments and for his position.

Colin Campbell, the NHL’s executive vice-president and director of hockey operations (who is also responsible for dealing out suspensions), said he thought many concussion victims were faking it. The Star’s research found that at least 30 NHL players had their careers ended in some major part due to concussions, but Campbell said this number was inflated.

“Some are legitimate,” Campbell told the Star. “I think some you might find aren’t legitimate. … I think there’s a small percentage, not a great percentage, of players who use it as an excuse, `Oh yeah, I’ve got a concussion.’ They can milk it. It’s a hard thing to really say that you haven’t, you know, if you’re trying to get some extra insurance money out of it to get paid an extra year or something.”

Campbell also said outlawing hits to the head, a step the Ontario Hockey League has taken, isn’t going to solve the problem. He told Starkman that banning head hits would result in more players skating with their heads down, making them more vulnerable. In fact, he went so far as to defend the league’s lack of action on head shots. “That’s just part of our game,” he told the Star. “The F1 (Formula One auto racing ) – I’m not talking death in our business – but the F1 with a death, do they put restraints on the car so they can only go 110?”

Having a league executive in such a position of power take these Neanderthal positions on serious injury issues is truly troubling for the NHL. In fact, 30 players is probably on the low side, as many concussions go undiagnosed and untreated. Even when concussions are diagnosed, the internationally-recognized full treatment plan for athletes’ return to play is rarely followed. Players are supposed to start with complete rest, then slowly work themselves up to light activities such as running before participating in non-contact, and then contact, practices. If symptoms recur at any level, the player is supposed to return to the previous level. As Keith Primeau said in Starkman’s article, many players return before they should, especially if it’s the playoffs. “Guys aren’t going to think long-term,” Primeau said. “We never do.”

Primeau speaks from personal experience there. He was stretchered off the ice in the decisive game of Philadelphia’s 2000 playoff series with Pittsburgh, but returned to the line-up before the first game of the team’s next series, which he told the Star was “the most erroneous decision I ever made.”

Stories like Primeau’s are dominant in hockey. Famous players like Stu Grimson, who also was forced to retire because of repeated concussions, have admitted they frequently returned to the ice before they should have and played through concussions. It’s cases like these that prove Campbell doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about when it comes to these injuries. NHL players are a hardy bunch, perhaps too hardy for their own good. They aren’t going to retire because of a faked concussion.

Concussions have taken a massive toll on everyone from greats such as Eric Lindros, Scott Stevens and Adam Deadmarsh to role players like Jeff Beukeboom and Matthew Barnaby. Some, such as Paul Comrie and Jesse Wallin, played less than 100 NHL games before concussions forced them out. Others, such as Pittsburgh Penguins draft pick Mark Moore, had to quit playing hockey before they even made it to the NHL. Even leaving the game doesn’t mean that the injury’s effects are left behind. As Starkman reported, concussions drastically altered the behaviour of players like Kevin Kaminski, making family life extremely difficult.

There’s also a body of scientific research showing that concussions have long-term dangers. As Starkman wrote, “A University of North Carolina study reported in 2005 that retired National Football League players faced a 37 per cent higher risk of Alzheimer’s than similarly aged U.S. males. It also found repeated concussions significantly raised the chance they’d suffer dementias such as mild cognitive impairment later in life.” Grimson told Starkman he thinks similar numbers would appear in a study focusing on hockey players, but the NHL denied the UNC group’s request to conduct a similar study. Also, a study of frequently-concussed former NFL safety Andre Waters’ brain tissue after his 2006 suicide at the age of 44 revealed that his brain tissue was equivalent to that of an 85-year old man and showed early signs of Alzheimer’s.

Fortunately, the Players’ Association seems to be taking a new interest in the problem, perhaps motivated by the recent appointment of Lindros as their ombudsman. Unfortunately, the league still seems to be stuck in the Dark Ages. Starkman reported that many coaches, including the Boston Bruins’ Claude Julien, have frequently either denied that their players were concussed or shrugged their injuries off as minor. A scathing indictment of the league’s policies came from former Ottawa Senators’ team doctor Jamie Kissick. “A friend of mine who was a team doctor on one of the other NHL teams said, `Well, we don’t have any concussions,’” Kissick told the Star. “He said this facetiously because the coach didn’t believe in them, so there were no concussions.”

The comments and actions of Campbell and the NHL show that they still don’t take concussions seriously. Perhaps Campbell, who played for the Vancouver Canucks in the 1980s, should realize that the game has changed since his era. Players are bigger, faster and stronger than ever before, and the hits are harder. As Grimson said to Starkman, “[m]y generation of athletes will be the ones to more accurately tell the tale of what the effects are later in life for somebody that suffers significant head trauma or even insignificant but repeated head trauma.”

The science of understanding and preventing concussions is progressing by leaps and bounds. Campbell and the NHL should take their heads out of the sand and jump on board, allowing researchers full access and making sure that players, coaches and team medical staff all understand the severe nature of this problem. Banning head-hunting, which is far too frequent in today’s NHL, would also be a big step forward. I don’t want to see hitting removed from the game, but the OHL’s ban on any kind of head shot has proved that you can still play good physical hockey without ending the careers of others.

Going into the winter break, I figured it’s time to take a look at how some of the Gaels’ teams are doing so far. Without further ado, here are my thoughts about how their seasons are going.

Men’s volleyball
This team came into the year with perhaps the highest expectations placed on them, driven by last year’s OUA championship banner (in fact, the only banner Queen’s won last year) and their top ranking in the Athletics and Recreation Review. With only a couple of losses to graduation and a strong rookie class, all of the pre-season signs pointed to another stellar year for the Gaels. However, it’s been a difficult season for them so far. Hindered by key injuries, namely to libero Stu Hamilton and outside hitter Dan McCrae, and gruelling road swings, the team is 6-4 going into the break and in a three-way tie for fourth in the OUA. The Gaels have been close several times though: three of the losses (to the McMaster Marauders, the Guelph Gryphons, and the Western Mustangs) have been in five-set matches. Other encouraging signs come from Coach Willis’s recent comments that the Gaels played better than they had all season in their last couple of matches. The team will be playing in a Florida tournament against American schools this winter, which should not only help them stay sharp, but also force them to elevate their game. With an easier travel schedule in the second half, and hopefully a few less injuries, they should still be able to contend for the OUA title.

Women’s volleyball
It seems to be a transition year for this program, with new head coach Joely Christian taking the reins and a strong stable of incoming rookies. I’ve been very impressed with Elyssa Heller’s play so far, and fellow rookies Colleen Ogilvie and Lorna Button have also made solid impacts. There are also several good second-year players, including last year’s OUA East Rookie of the Year Louise, Christiane Taylor and Ellen Gray. However, the team’s youth (they only have one fourth-year player, Jennifer Willis, and no fifth-year players) has shown so far: they’re 2-7 after nine games, and four of their losses have been in straight sets. They should improve a bit later this year as the new players become more familiar with OUA volleyball, but this team’s real test will be if they’re able to translate their young talent into success in the next few seasons.

Men’s basketball
I took in the men’s basketball team’s 94-71 win over Lakehead Saturday night and was very impressed with most of what I saw. They had a tough 92-81 loss to McMaster the night before, but rebounded with a good performance against the Thunderwolves. The Gaels have a good balance to their lineup, which combines strong perimeter shooting from the likes of Baris Ondul (six of eight from beyond the three-point arc Saturday) and Nick DiDonato (four of five on threes) with some good inside play from Mitch Leger and company. Leger particularly impressed me, as he was able to nail 24 points, including a 10 for 10 night from the free-throw line, despite a below-average performance from the field. The team also was able to step it up in the fourth quarter, as they only led by five going into the final frame. They’re 5-3 going into the break, good enough for fourth in the OUA East. I don’t think they’re too likely to threaten the
8-0Carleton Ravens this year, but they should have a decent chance against most of the other Ontario teams.

The great thing about this team is their youth: Ondul’s in his third year of eligibility, while Leger’s only in his second, and many rookies such as DiDonato, Jon Ogden, Tim Boyle and Travis Mitchell are also making their presence felt this year. As Mike brought up at the game Saturday, recruiting tends to go in cycles: a good season by a team frequently aids their off-season recruiting, which in turn assists next year’s on-court performance, explaining why Carleton has been so dominant in men’s basketball over the last several years. Hopefully, this team will be able to finish strong, attract some more quality recruits to their solid young core and pose a serious threat to the OUA powerhouses within the next few seasons.

Women’s basketball
It has been a tougher start for the women’s team than the men’s, as they’re 3-6 after nine games. That’s still good enough for fourth place in the OUA East, though, which demonstrates the clear disparity in this league. Three of the eastern teams (the Ryerson Rams, the Ottawa Gee-Gees and the Royal Military College Paladins) are still winless, while Guelph has a better record than Queen’s despite being last in the OUA West. There are some bright spots for the Gaels, still, as they’ve seen good performances from young players such as rookie Brittany Moore, who put up 19 points in Saturday’s 80-57 win over Lakehead. Unlike women’s volleyball, though, this team is pretty veteran-heavy, so there are more expectations on them this year. Hopefully they’ll be able to turn it around in the second half.

Men’s hockey
The men’s hockey team is a respectable 8-7-2 at this point—good enough to lead the OUA Mid-East Division. All of the other division leaders (the Brock Badgers, the Université de Québec à Trois Rivières Patriotes, and the Western Mustangs) have 12 wins, though. The Gaels have received great goaltending from the duo of Ryan Gibb and Brady Morrison, but offence has been more of a concern: the team averages 2.41 goals per game, but gives up an average of 2.88. The 17 points of their leading scorer, Brady Olsen, aren’t even enough to be in the OUA Top 20 (although he is tied for 14th with 10 goals), and the offence falls off dramatically after that. Team captain Jeff Ovens and Jon Asselstine are both tied for second in team scoring with only 12 points, which makes it likely this team is going to have to count on offence by committee in the second half (Hmm: strong goaltending, decent defence, and problems scoring: reminds me of another team I like to support).

On the plus side, Ovens is leading by example with a solid performance this year: he’s continued his strong defensive play while chipping in some key goals. Rookies like Mike Bushby, Jon Lawrance and Marcus Halcro have also been doing pretty well. The Gaels will be in a tight fight for the division championship with the University of Toronto Varsity Blues (8-8-1) and the RMC Paladins (7-8-2) in the second half: hopefully, they’ll be able to hang onto their lead and take the division.

Women’s hockey
So far, the season has been a bit of a letdown for the women’s hockey team, OUA silver medallists last season. They’re currently 6-8-3 and in a three-way tie for fifth in the OUA. The slow start is perhaps attributable to the adjustment period under a new coach (Rob Lalonde), but they’ll have to turn it up in the second half if they want to compete with the better teams in the OUA like Laurier, Toronto, and Guelph (26, 25 and 24 points respectively). At times they’ve received strong offensive performances, such as in a 7-6 Nov. 23 win over Guelph, but they’ve struggled to score consistently lately, as seen by this past weekend’s 3-1 and 4-1 losses to Windsor and Western. Liz Kench has been one of the standouts so far, with her 20 points putting her second in OUA scoring. Most of the questions surrounding this team are on the defensive end, however, as their 2.80 goals against per game are fifth-worse in the OUA. With luck, they’ll be able to pick it up in the second half and get back to last year’s form.

Awesome link I found (from the Junior Hockey Blog): Perhaps what the Golden Gaels’ marketing department really needs is a little more cowbell?

Another good link for those interested in Gaels’ athletics: Neate Sager’s blog, with frequent postings about how the various Gaels’ teams are doing.

The Philadelphia Flyers have been doling out a lot of punishment over the course of the NHL season thus far. First, Steve Downie, a player with a history of violence so long that he’ll undoubtedly be played by Viggo Mortensen in any biopic, jumped up to hit concussion-prone Ottawa Senators’ forward Dean McAmmond. For his trouble, Downie wound up with a 20-game suspension and McAmmond received another concussion. The Flyers then pulled an incredibly classy move, trying to evade the suspension by reassigning Downie to their AHL affiliate. Fortunately, they weren’t able to pull the wool over either league’s eyes, and the AHL reciprocated the suspension.

Earlier this month, the pattern continued when Jesse Boulerice cross-checked Vancouver Canucks’ forward Ryan Kesler across the face with his stick. Kesler was fortunate to escape without serious injury. For his actions, Boulerice was suspended for 25 games, the longest-single season ban in NHL history. Kesler told the Vancouver Province that Boulerice deserved more punishment than Downie for his actions.

“Downie’s was a hockey play, but a dirty hockey play,” Kesler said. “Crosschecking someone to the face isn’t a hockey play—it’s someone taking advantage of someone not being aware of a guy blindsiding him. … He could have possibly ended my season. Luckily, he broke his stick because he could have broken my jaw. He deserves whatever he gets.”

Kesler’s right, here: a dirty hit is a dirty hit, but is only slightly over the line that differentiates finishing checks from taking players out. Swinging a stick at someone’s face, on the other hand, doesn’t even come close to justifiable as a part of hockey. Thus the league was right to hand out the longer ban to Boulerice. Perhaps both punishments should have been more severe, though, as later events demonstrated the Flyers’ attitude was unchanged.

The latest event in the sad saga was Randy Jones’ hit from behind that concussed Patrice Bergeron. It wasn’t as bad as the preceding two acts: if the plays by Downie and Boulerice represent the highest level of dirty hockey, then Jones’ hit would be off toiling for the Belfast Giants à la Theoren Fleury. However, it was still a hit from behind, and more troublingly, the third in short succession from the same franchise. With this in mind, NHL discipline czar Colin Campbell handed Jones a two-game suspension.

What these plays collectively demonstrate is the return to character of the Flyers, historically one of the roughest teams in the NHL. In fact, their only Stanley Cup wins came in 1975 and 1976, where they were appropriately known as the “Broad Street Bullies”. Those teams featured such stellar characters as Bobby Clarke, famous for the slash right out of a mob drama that broke Soviet star Valery Kharlamov’s ankle back in the Canada-Russia 1972 Summit Series, Dave “The Hammer” Schultz, who established a single-season penalty-minute record that still stands today, and Ed Van Impe, whose brutal cross-check on Kharlamov in a 1976 exhibition game caused the whole Soviet team to retreat to their dressing room in protest.

It’s no shocker that the Flyers have stuck with the same institutional philosophy of smashing their way through the NHL, particularly considering that Clarke was the general manager of the franchise for 19 years and is currently the senior vice-president of the team. In fact, the mafioso nature of the Downie and Boulerice incidents, clearly designed to knock a specific opponent out of the game, suggests that they were attempting to emulate their vice-president as best as they could.

The way I see it, rough play itself is not the problem. There have been plenty of teams that have excelled both with skill and grit, such as the 1982 Vancouver Canucks (which incidentally, Colin “Soupy” Campbell was a member of), the 2004 Calgary Flames and the 2007 Anaheim Ducks, who led the league in fighting majors on their way to claiming the Stanley Cup. However, all of those teams largely stayed within the bounds of what is acceptable in the game of hockey: they finished their checks, they took their penalties, but they didn’t set out to knock opponents out of the game in the fashion that Clarke demonstrated back in his playing career, which Downie and Boulerice have now adopted.

The troubling aspect is when an organization’s entire philosophy—in everything from drafting players to signing free agents and developing coaching systems— is devoted to battering their way through the league by any means necessary. Three incidents in less than two months (and incidentally, the only three suspensions handed down to players in that period) is far too many for any franchise, particularly when the first two are of the particularly macabre grade of the Downie and Boulerice hits. If the Flyers do anything else to cross the line this year, the league office should come down on them as heavily as a Dave Schultz hammer punch.

The May firing of National Hockey League Players’ Association executive director Ted Saskin has brought to light many unsavoury events in the union. Saskin was first suspended with pay, then fired for his role in reading players’ e-mails. The conspiracy Saskin orchestrated to spy on his own players was disturbing enough; however, what’s more troubling are some of the recent revelations in the case.

On Oct. 13, Toronto Star sports business columnist Rick Westhead revealed that league vice-president Bill Daly had forwarded an e-mail from TSN hockey commentator Gord Miller about the efforts to Saskin. This led several media outlets, including radio station The FAN 590’s Prime Time Sports show to raise the question of if Saskin had been in cahoots with the league all along, and if league commissioner Gary Bettman and Daly had played a role in his selection.

These are good questions to be asking, and there may be more evidence of close collusion between Saskin and the NHL yet to come to light. However, the key thing to investigate here is the source of the NHLPA’s problems, which is the same as it has always been: the apathy of the players.

Despite the incredible revelations of the Saskin case, as The Globe and Mail’s David Shoalts reported, only 61 of the more than 700 NHL players showed up in Toronto this August for the end-of-summer meetings where lawyer Sheila Block’s report on the union’s dealings with Saskin was presented. It’s unthinkable that less than nine per cent of the membership in any other union would bother attending a meeting that not only detailed the abuses that had taken place under the past union head, but also laid out solutions for moving forward. Yet, with hockey, this is not the exception but the norm.

Hockey salaries and collective bargaining have always been an odd issue. As famously reported in Net Worth, the 1991 book by David Cruise and Alison Griffiths about the shoddy treatment of NHL players over the years, the great Gordie Howe was one of the lowest-paid players in the league for most of his career due to players refusing to share how much they made with each other. In Susan Foster’s book, The Power of Two, she points out that Howe thought he was being treated fairly by the owners until Bobby Baun, a recent arrival to the Red Wings, revealed that he was making double the amount Howe was. A complete annual list of players’ salaries wasn’t released until 1990.

The players’ association itself also had a troubled beginning. Early efforts by Howe’s linemate “Terrible” Ted Lindsay and Canadiens’ famed defenceman Doug Harvey in 1955 collapsed, largely due to—you guessed it—player disinterest. As Kevin Shea of the Hockey Hall of Fame reported, it was dissension among the ranks and the players’ fears of organization that led to the demise of Lindsay’s unionizing attemps. For his efforts, Lindsay was shipped to the cellar-dwelling Chicago Black Hawks.

Lindsay gave a great description of the players’ treatment back in that era.
“The laws were way different back then,” he told Shea. “If the laws we have today would have been in place back then, all the owners and managers would have been in jail. It was like slavery back then.”
You would think those kind of conditions would convince players that working together might be in their best interests. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. Even after Bob Pulford successfully pulled together the current association in 1967 despite tremendous opposition, it was still a major issue to get players to work together. As Stephen Brunt reported in his great book, Searching For Bobby Orr, many veterans were up in arms when Orr was given the most lucrative contract in the league as a rookie, even though his deal would eventually lead to tremendous salary escalation for every player.

As Brunt said, “The instant the deal was consummated, everything about the hockey business changed, though some of the new realities would take years to become apparent. For the players, even the ones who quietly seethed at a raw kid who hadn’t played a minute of pro hockey getting all of that money, it was emancipation day.”
Orr’s contract was also a landmark in that it was the first one negotiated by a lawyer, and was the beginning of the sports agent era. That lawyer, the infamous Alan Eagleson, was appointed the first executive director of the NHLPA later on that year. Eagleson’s work would lead to tremendous benefits for the players, but again, player disinterest in what he was actually doing led to him skimming off money from them left, right, and centre, which resulted in his eventual downfall.

After Eagleson was finally brought down, by a combination of crusading journalists (more on that in a later blog) and his former clients, the players chose Bob Goodenow to replace him. Goodenow was certainly nothing like Eagleson and Saskin, who both preferred cozying up to the league to actually taking it on. However, as Eric Duhatschek pointed out in an October 19 column on globesports.com, Goodenow went too far the other way at times, leading to a player strike and two lockouts, all of which hurt the state of the game.

On Prime Time Sports last Friday, Bob McCown and Brunt postulated that player apathy towards the union was also responsible for the axing of Goodenow. Many of the players were unwilling to stick to the hard-line course advocated by Goodenow during the last lockout, and so the knives were sharpened, the troublemaker was disposed of, and Saskin, a yes-man willing to accede to the league’s demands, was installed in his place.

I’m not arguing that Saskin took the wrong course with the league: at that point, it was necessary to come to terms to avoid a second missed season. However, the possibility that Bettman and Daly were orchestrating events from behind the scenes to get an adversary favourable to them and the shadiness of the process used to hire Saskin truly shows the disinterest of the players.

For a long period, only the small group of voices crying in the wilderness led by Trent Klatt, Chris Chelios and Dwayne Roloson dared to suggest that there could be anything wrong with the hiring of Saskin. The majority of players didn’t look closely at the process used, and more disturbingly, didn’t care. This is not new with the NHLPA: in fact, it’s almost a direct flashback to the Eagleson era, when few players other than Carl Brewer were at all interested in keeping tabs on their union head and his myriad of shady activities and conflicts of interest.

Perhaps things are about to come full circle. It was announced last week that the union had hired Boston lawyer Paul Kelly, famed for his role in extraditing Eagleson to the United States to face charges, to be their new executive director.

Kelly appears to be a good choice for the job, and seems to be willing to stand up to the NHL. However, the true test of his leadership will be if he can get players to overcome their disinterest and stay involved with their union. As Shoalts said in his column Saturday, “The biggest job facing Paul Kelly in rebuilding the NHL Players’ Association is overcoming the apathy of the majority of its 700 members.” Truer words were never spoken.